I Wish They Could All Be "Nick's Peeps"

Shawn e-mails to advise us that Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman is looking for a few good Minnesotans:

I am looking for My Peeps of the Year.

If someone else had taken up the slack, I would've been happy to let them. But when you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. So here's my idea: With your help, I'd like to name my ColeMan and ColeWoman of the year. Two Minnesotans who deserve to be recognized as Person Of The Year (POTY) for being the most outstanding -- or the most outrageous -- among us.

I am no Saint Nicholas: Nominees do not have to be good little boys and girls. Nor do they have to be someone I approve of, voted for or want to hang with.

Nor, in order to not minimize the participant pool, do they have to be someone who wants to hang with Nick.

Based on his preliminary list, it looks like he needs all the help he can get:

How about Minneapolis Fire Chief (on leave) Bonnie Bleskachek, who has made fire houses far more, ahem, interesting to me than they were before, and who leads the country in the number of four-alarm law suits she has sparked? She could be in the hunt.

Other names among the usual categories of suspects include:

Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who won re-election and made it through the whole year (so far) without publicly dropping an F-bomb along with the puck.

Joe Mauer, who won the American League batting title.

Congressman-elect Keith Ellison, the Honorable Muslim from the great state of Minnesota. Or Amy Klobuchar, our first elected woman senator. Or Judi Dutcher, who turned a campaign around and won the election (for the other guys).

Or, turning our sights to loftier plateaus, a St. Paul native named HeideMarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, who did rings around all of them (and around the planet), as a crew member on a space shuttle.

Yawn. Thankfully, you have a chance to liven up this lame list:

Send your nominations to me, by e-mail at the address below. Remember: There are two awards, one for a man and one for a woman. I will sort the nominees and make an initial effort to winnow them down. Then, on Dec. 17, I will report back to you with the names of our finalists. That's when you will have a chance to vote. We'll get a ballot online on the Star Tribune website, so you can choose the winners. They will be announced on Dec. 24.

ncoleman@startribune.com

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